Era puro mato: o processo de desmatamento nas terras da Companhia Territorial Sul Brasil (1925-1978)

Abstract

Deforestation is one of the major environmental problems in the world, as it affects the balance of ecosystems, leads to the loss of biodiversity, causes soil erosion, compromises water sources and intensifies the effect of climate change. The West region of Santa Catarina, which was predominantly covered by forests until the beginning of the 20th century, being a common account of those who experienced that landscape to say that “it was pure bush”, however, with the colonization it was being transformed and today has the smallest forest cover in the state. This work aims to describe the deforestation process that occurred, in the western region of Santa Catarina, on the lands of the Companhia Territorial Sul Brasil, during the years of its activities in the colonization and logging activities (1925-1978). The methodology used comes from the discipline of Environmental History, considering nature in the development of Human History, using interdisciplinarity with forest sciences, geography, botany and regional history. We seek to use various sources in this analysis, such as: maps, correspondence, reports, contracts, laws, interviews and photographs. Finally, we identified the vegetation formation in the region, the strategies and devices of the colonizer 's performance to sell the land and explore the forest. A process that involves several actors, colonizing company, settlers, manual workers, contractors, sawmill owners, which resulted in irreversible forest devastation.